I found this as a good read for designers

“Identity design is not about what one likes or dislikes. It’s about what works.”

In Identify, designers Tom Geismar and Ivan Chermayeff, and partner Sagi Haviv, open-up their studio for the first time in the firm’s 55-year history. This excellent book reveals the creative process that led to some of the world’s most iconic visual identities.

There’s a preface from Isaac Mizrahi and a foreword from Steven Heller before the book gets down to business with a few pages describing the firm’s overall identity design process.

“Sketching by hand gives a designer an immediacy of artistic expression and intuitive extension of creative impulses that as of now using the computer lacks. We are looking for the most direct connection between an idea and the creation of a form. In the early conceptual phase, the computer’s preprogrammed functions often just get in the way.”

The remainder of the book is filled with almost 100 case studies detailing the design decisions behind trademarks we’ve all come to know, regardless of our knowledge of the design profession.

Library of Congress

“The solution that we came up with was a combination of an allusion to a library and a representation of the American nation: an open book and the American flag.”

National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

“It wasn’t until 1986, six long years after NBC first hired us, that the network took the number-one slot and the new peacock was released into the world.”

Chase Manhattan Bank

“The blue octagonal mark is abstract but not without meaning. It suggests a Chinese coin or, with the square enclosed in an octagon, a bank vault and by extension the notion of security and trust.”

National Geographic

“Beyond the basic signature and guidelines for usage, recommendations were made for the extensive use of the color yellow, especially for product packaging; the use wherever possible of appropriate and striking photography; a standard way to incorporate a message about the society and its purpose; and how, without restrictions on layout and design, the use of strong, clean contemporary design can help update perceptions of National Geographic.”

“This remarkable book testifies to the benefits of collaboration and sets a very high standard for the entire field to emulate.”— milton glaser